North Carolina voters apparently would have difficulty picking their two senators in Washington out of a line-up.

That's the conclusion of the folks over at Public Policy Polling, who say that their polling in 14 different states indicates that North Carolina voters are less familiar with their senators than voters in other states.

Their basis for that is approval polling they have done of the U.S. senators in 14 states. In North Carolina, an average of 33 percent said they had "no opinion" when asked what they thought of how Sens. Richard Burr, a Winton-Salem Republican, and Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, were doing.

That figure was higher than in any of the other states where PPP has polled. Delaware was a close second, with 29 percent, followed by Colorado at 27 percent and New Jersey at 25 percent.

At the other end of the spectrum were West Virginia, where only 10 percent of voters said they had no opinion on their senators, and Virginia, at 12 percent.

Tom Jensen of PPP speculates that could be due to a number of factors, including that North Carolina doesn't keep its senators around for long and that North Carolina has become such a big state that it's hard for the senators to cover so much ground.

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue delivered "Happy Birthday!" wishes on behalf of the state to Rev. Billy Graham at his 90th birthday party Thursday night.

Perdue was among about 500 attendees at a dinner at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia, and she spoke briefly, praising Graham and offering the state's good wishes.

"He has given strength to millions, including me, in times of trial," Perdue told the crowd, according to a copy of her remarks, "built mountains of faith in times of uncertainty, shared times of happiness, and has been there for any and all seeking a new beginning through belief."

Perdue and her husband, Robert Eaves, also attended a private reception before the dinner. Her spokeswoman, Chrissy Pearson, said she is not a close friend of Graham but has met with him over the years and admired him.

Verenda Smith says Kentucky, Louisiana and Arkansas are in the Southeast, but not West Virginia.

The interim director of the Federation of Tax Administrators says she would use climate, history and economy to define the region. She says Southeastern states have muggy weather, often border the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean and were in the Confederacy.

That last quality would eliminate Kentucky, which did not secede, but Smith argued as a native of the state that it was divided by the Civil War. She would include Louisiana and Arkansas because of their warmer climates and Confederate membership.

"West Virginia is harder because they are geographically different from the rest of the Southeast, up there with Pennsylvania and Ohio," she said. "They don't have the growing seasons and the cotton, and they were on the Union side."

Still, Smith said it's an academic exercise.

"The question has no single answer," she said.

How do you define the Southeast?

We here at Dome headquarters have been poring over some tax data this morning as part of a fact-check, and we came across this interesting epistemological problem.

The general consensus of our group of reporters was that it includes the following states:

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

We did not include West Virginia, but the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis does in its regional breakdowns. That means a number of other groups, such as the Tax Foundation, also use it.

The U.S. Census Bureau does not define the Southeast.  

David "Mudcat" Saunders has his own take on John Edwards' endorsement.

A chief adviser to Edwards' presidential campaign on rural affairs, Saunders said the timing of the loss couldn't be better given Obama's resounding loss in West Virginia Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.

And, being a man named Mudcat after all, he put it in his own inimitable way: 

"For Barack Obama, I think he ought to kiss Johnny Edwards on the lips to kill this 41-point loss," he said. "The story is not going to be the 41-point loss. It's going to be Edwards' endorsement."

Treasurer Richard Moore is running for governor, but of which state?

He took the stage at a campaign kickoff at his Oxford high school Tuesday to a snappy instrumental bluegrass song by the band GrassStreet.

The title: "West Virginia Turnpike."

It was suggested to the band that this was an odd choice for the occasion.

"You can call it Carolina Turnpike if you want," said member Kevin Tompkins.

He said he wrote the song seven years ago after going to West Virginia to buy a Dobro. It's available on the band's 2005 album, "Hittin' the Street."

Band leader Wayne Kinton said Moore's campaign specifically chose the song because they wanted a "fanfare" for his entrance.

After a campaign aide urgently whispered in his ear, he clarified that the song is now known as "Turnpike."